Which hardware does ENB rely on?

[Darkstorne]

I know it's GPU-driven, but I'm wondering which parts of a GPU are most important? I currently have two 2GB GTX560 Ti's in SLI, and really struggle to run ENB with multiple effects at once - so typically I play with detailed shadows and godrays, but disable SSAO and DoF. There's something about them that seems to make them really weak at post-processing.

I'm looking to upgrade to a new GPU, either a 700 series card, or maybe wait until the 800 series launches next year. I'm weighing up the pros and cons of a 770 or a 780, and since ENB series is so important to me I'm wondering which aspects of a GPU are most relied on by ENB series. For example, if Shader Units are the most important (a random guess, because I'm clueless ) then the 770 has 1,536 which is 768 less than the 780's 2,304. But the 770 seems to have higher memory clock speeds, and it also runs quieter, at lower temps, and uses less power.

So basically, if I know which aspects of a GPU are the most important for ENB, I can make a more informed decision when upgrading

Thanks!

[ENBSeries]

For modern videocards texel rate is at first place, then fill rate. Shader units in current shaders are not bottleneck. Dual gpu cards are not recommended, they may be slower, like sli when not configured properly. I'm still busy with the mod, almost don't have time to make benchmark, but it's summer and may be i'll start working on it, so wait.

[Darkstorne]

Thanks, Boris! Interesting to hear that SLI isn't recommended. Would a 690 be considered an SLI config or a single card? If it's read as a single card then I might consider saving for a 790 or 890. Otherwise, it'll probably be a 780/880.

[chan]

It is like SLI. It has more jitter than a single 670. For the money, I would recommend the Titan. You get more throughput, and better processing power, with a lower TDP.

[ENBSeries]

GTX 780 instead of Titan, almost same by lower price. I don't know if double gpu cards have sli properties in nvidia control center which allow to configure profile, if they can't then definetly must be avoided, because of potential bugs and performance drops. Because effects are mostly depends from amount of screen pixels, sli do good job, but because i reuse render targets without ability to develop for sli, both cards are waiting each other even when sli work in mode were one frame executed by one card, second frame by another card. Because you are sli cards owner, try to check every mod and measure performance with sli and single card mode, if some sli profile work perfectly always and performance is almost doubled, then you may risk with sli again. In general for gaming performance with sli/crossfire is lower because of cpu bottleneck, these technologies are good only for huge resolutions and very complex fx.

[Darkstorne]

Ooo, thanks! I had no idea

When I bought these 560's it was a decision between two 560 cards or a single 580. Back then I assumed the 560's would be roughly as powerful as a single 580, but would also allow me to dedicate one of the cards to PhysX in games like Mirror's Edge and Arkham Asylum, so I went with them. I quickly discovered that the games I played the most (Morrowind and Oblivion, mainly) didn't benefit at all from SLI though, and I've always wished I had bought a single 580 instead.

Can't complain too much about the 560's, they do what I need fairly well (Battlefield 3 at 60fps maxed out), but it's a bummer that a 580 would have been much more useful for TES games and ENB Series.

If the price on the 780 drops to a reasonable level (like the cost of a 680) then I'll buy one. Otherwise I'll wait for the 880 since that should be a huge step up. If I want SLI in the future, I can always buy a second card when the 900 series launches at a second-hand price.

Thanks for the replies

[far327]

Not sure why SLi wouldn't be recommended. I noticed a HUGE performance difference when I only have 1 card active as opposed to 2.

If you have the option, buy two cards. Try them out in SLi / crossfire and if you think the performance just isn't worth the price, take one back.

For me however, my performance scaling is great with two cards. FPS is doubled for sure!

[mindflux]

Sure two cards is better than one, but I guess the question was more about whether it's worth getting two cards (or dual) or one card as powerful as the two - in which case, for compatibility reasons it's a safer bet to just go with one card.

[Darkstorne]

Yep, sorry, that's what I meant Mindflux

Last time I bought two 560s instead of one 580, and they really suffer with ENB series when I try to have SSAO and DoF enabled. At best, I can play with one of those two enabled, and keep GPU temps to around 75 degrees with their fans working like crazy. Both of them enabled sends my FPS plummeting, and my temps soaring, so I only enable them for screenshots.

This time around I'll buy a single 780 or 880, and then probably buy a second card for SLI when the 900 series releases if I feel I need more power at the time

[chan]

The 660 Ti is a great card for budget performance. I get much better performance with one 660 Ti (3GB) than SLI 650M (laptop). Performance difference between the 660 Ti and Titan is more than double, and the additional ram really helps with High-Res mods. I can get 60FPS now with ENB and 40GBs of textures active in the game. Only in dense grass, or heavy exterior reflection, will I see a slow down.